Baby Mammoth Mummy: Frozen in Time: A Prehistoric Animal's Journey into the 21st Century
By Christopher Sloan
National Geographic Children, 2011
Pages: 48
Suggested Ages: 8-12
ISBN-13: 9781426308659
All those scientific investigation methods that we love seeing each week on CSI television programs are real. Scientists used them to uncover facts about a 42,000 year-old baby wooly mammoth.
Yuri Khudi and his sons were out on the Siberian frozen tundra in their reindeer-pulled sled when they discovered something extraordinary along the bank of the Yuribey River: a carcass of a baby wooly mammoth so well-preserved that it looked as though it could have died the day before. Christopher Sloan tells the fascinating story of how the baby mammoth, named Lyuba, provided paleontologists with a never-before-seen view of prehistoric life in Siberia. Sloan explains how Lyuba's remains have helped scientists further understand what the Siberian environment was like during the Ice Age, how the wooly mammoth is related to modern-day elephants, and theories about how mammoths became extinct. Hair and tissue sample analyses, CT scans, and radiocarbon dating enabled scientists to determine such facts as Lyuba's age when she died (32 days), last meal (mother's milk), and cause of death (suffocation after being trapped in mud). There is also the intriguing possibility that enough DNA may be harvested from Lyuba and other wooly mammoth remains to bring the species back to life. The science fiction of Jurassic Park could become reality!
Abundantly illustrated with color photographs and artist's renderings, Baby Mammoth Mummy Frozen in Time! offers readers a unique look into how cutting-edge science is used to help in understanding the distant past.
Reviewed by Sully
THEMES: ANIMALS. SCIENCE & SCIENTISTS.
All those scientific investigation methods that we love seeing each week on CSI television programs are real. Scientists used them to uncover facts about a 42,000 year-old baby wooly mammoth.
Yuri Khudi and his sons were out on the Siberian frozen tundra in their reindeer-pulled sled when they discovered something extraordinary along the bank of the Yuribey River: a carcass of a baby wooly mammoth so well-preserved that it looked as though it could have died the day before. Christopher Sloan tells the fascinating story of how the baby mammoth, named Lyuba, provided paleontologists with a never-before-seen view of prehistoric life in Siberia. Sloan explains how Lyuba's remains have helped scientists further understand what the Siberian environment was like during the Ice Age, how the wooly mammoth is related to modern-day elephants, and theories about how mammoths became extinct. Hair and tissue sample analyses, CT scans, and radiocarbon dating enabled scientists to determine such facts as Lyuba's age when she died (32 days), last meal (mother's milk), and cause of death (suffocation after being trapped in mud). There is also the intriguing possibility that enough DNA may be harvested from Lyuba and other wooly mammoth remains to bring the species back to life. The science fiction of Jurassic Park could become reality!
Abundantly illustrated with color photographs and artist's renderings, Baby Mammoth Mummy Frozen in Time! offers readers a unique look into how cutting-edge science is used to help in understanding the distant past.
Reviewed by Sully
THEMES: ANIMALS. SCIENCE & SCIENTISTS.
